Practical Guide for Navigating the Job Market in the New Normal

Practical Guide for Navigating the Job Market in the New Normal

Career and Finding a Job

With organizations filing for bankruptcy, job losses, the future of work, and uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and the New Normal, it feels unclear what the future holds. As part of our #ChangeConversation series, we asked some industry leaders and knowledge experts their thoughts on navigating your career in the new normal. You can hear Jennifer Collins, Mohammed Chahdi, Yvonne Ruke Akpoveta, and Maria Arvanites share their insights and strategies on leading and navigating you career through these unprecedented and uncertain times on this episode of Change Conversations.

In this follow-up post, Maria Arvanites shares with us how to approach the job market in the current landscape of chaos and uncertainty. Maria is VP, Solution Sales at Robertson & Company Ltd. Maria has faced the challenges of re-entering the workforce herself after layoff, self-employment, extended PTO, during recessions and in times of boom. She has a unique perspective on presenting talent value proposition having worked with companies and candidates alike, both looking for perfect fits. She works with COOs, VPs of HR and local operations people – each with a unique perspective on the talent challenges their organization faces.

Here what she shared with us…

Remind yourself, that was not your last job. You have done great things and you will continue to do great things. Create a positive narrative for yourself. Much to Mo’s point, there are companies looking for someone with your skills!

Align your CV to the job description. Study the job description to pick up on keywords and phrases and incorporate them into your CV.  Keywords are picked up by smart technology that assists recruiters by analysing CVs of candidates – those with more keyword and phrase matches rise to the top of the recruiter’s pile of candidates to review.

Quantify yourself on paper. This is an excellent way to help companies understand your value, see that you are personally accountable and that you are self-aware of your performance. Excellent questions to ask yourself that will help you with this: how did you save a company money, how did you make them money.  What were your key metrics and your performance against those key metrics. Again, to Mo’s point, many good employees have been terminated from their roles- employees that were meeting and exceeding goals and expectations, quantifying yourself could be a differentiator and help you rise above others.

Women should apply to more roles, even when they don’t meet 100% of the criteria. Getting interviews – practicing your interview technique and expanding your network of recruiters will help your future.  You won’t get hired, unless you apply.

Network your way into your next opportunity. Build bridges with people in your industry – people you know, people you’ve heard of but never worked with, people who can refer you into others and potentially into jobs. And return the favour.  Keep the doors of communication open always.

Align yourself with recruiters who are specialists in your job function, category of expertise and industry. Example as a Salesperson/Solutions expert in HR / HR tech, I will align myself with a sales recruiter, a technology recruiter and a HR industry recruiter. They will give you the right coverage into the roles where your knowledge, expertise and contacts are transferable and valued.

If you enjoyed this post be sure to watch Maria Arvanites on “Navigating Your Career in the New Normal” #ChangeConversations: https://youtu.be/uCXMztad-Kk